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[meta] A/O Ship, Not Quite a Manifesto
Monsters/Lovers: Shipping, Writing, and/or Simply Appreciating Angel/Oz
Author: Glossolalia

Introduction

They're the quiet ones.

"I too know the love of a taciturn man," Willow reassured Buffy in "Enemies" (BtVS 3.17), the first of just two direct comparisons of Angel and Oz in canon. The second comparison came from Oz himself, to Doyle during "In the Dark" (AtS 1.03). Upon watching Angel and Oz greet each other in their inimitably monosyllabic way, Doyle asked Cordelia, "Are they always like this?" Oz's response: "No, usually we're laconic."

It's their quiet, as well as the reserve that such quiet connotes, that can make writing Angel and Oz, not to mention Angel/Oz, so difficult. Their voices are difficult to capture, because their natures are so hard to pin down. Getting a handle on the characterization, however, can ease some of the burden of voice, and it is, moreover, the key to shipping them.

Canon: intersection over subtext

Angel's characterization is slightly easier to grasp, if only because there's so much more canon to work with -- three years on BtVS and then five years of his own show. Lack of canon, however, can work in your favor when it comes to writing Oz, because there are so many more options for him. While we basically know just about everything Angel did from 1997-2004, Oz's actions and location can only be accounted for from 1998-2000.

Canonically, Angel and Oz were in Sunnydale at the same time through the end of s3, and in early-s4, Oz appeared in LA to give Angel the Gem of Amarra and protect him from Spike's designs on the ring ("In the Dark", AtS 1.03). Other than that episode, they rarely interacted. There are, however, several moments that can be resonant for the shipper. These are not classically subtextual moments so much as they are potential jumping-off points. That is, rather than being subtextual *clues* to a textually-unacknowledged relationship, they are instead moments that offer insight into the men's roles and identities. Such insight goes to the core of good characterization.

Oz's first date with Willow coincides perfectly with Angel's big change to Angelus ("Surprise" and "Innocence", BtVS 2.13-14). While the main action concerns the unforeseen but devastating consequences of Angel sleeping with Buffy, the Oz/Willow dynamic refracts those developments. Their date is Buffy's surprise party, and in the next episode, Willow uses Oz and his van to help steal the rocket-launcher. This is the moment when Oz refuses to kiss Willow, citing its potential "empti[ness]" because "to the casual observer, it might look like you were trying to make your friend Xander jealous".

This moment is significant for a couple of reasons. Oz will remain the "observer" (though hardly a "casual" one) of most of the essential plot points through the next season and a half. Furthermore, his refusal to indulge in what he wants -- "Willow-kissage" -- can be read as a direct rejection of the kind of behavior -- impulsive, indulgent, what have you -- that seemed to get Angel and Buffy into such trouble the previous night. It is also a strikingly mature decision on the part of a seventeen-year-old guy. This is emphasized by the cross-cut conversation between Cordelia and Xander, during which Xander observes, "I'm seventeen. Looking at linoleum makes me think about sex."

Angel and Oz's presence next overlaps in "Phases" (BtVS 2.15), when Oz becomes a werewolf. While the rest of the Scoobies are trying to figure *who* the werewolf is, Oz attempts to deal with it on his own. This decision is both characteristic of Oz and his stoic independence and, further, reflective of the general atmosphere among the group. Monsters, Oz has learned in his short acquaintance with the Slayer's friends, are to be exterminated. Faced with this, it's elementary that he'd try to take care of things on his own. As the wolf, he meets Angelus over the corpse of Theresa.

Angel is, then, the first of the (quondam) group to know about Oz's monstrosity. That moment in which the two beasts growl at each other over the dead girl is highly significant and resonant. Theresa's corpse becomes a mirror. Monsters seem to be identical -- here, as well as in their masculinity. In a library conference, processing Giles' description of the werewolf as pure id and hunger, Buffy decides that the wolf must be male. Thus, Angel and Oz, gender and monstrosity, and desire and beastliness are all tangled together some more. (This despite the fact that Buffy initiated the sex in "Passion", though the weight of her guilt afterwards does make her projection of it on men in general understandable, if not logical.)

All men are beasts is the (mistaken) lesson of this episode¹. Theresa's death is blamed on the werewolf -- until, that is, she rises in the funeral parlor and delivers a message from Angelus. Oz and Angel are not, however, identical so much as they are *related*. While Angelus rampages merrily through Sunnydale, Oz attempts to control his monstrosity. First he tries to chain himself up; then, once his identity is known, he locks himself up every month.

There is little more canon interaction between the two over the course of s3; each is defined and related to the woman in his life far more than they are to each other, or on their own. The sex-monster dialectic, however, continues to obtain in each relationship. In "Amends" (3.10), Angel is driven to suicide by guilt for what he has done in the past and what he is capable of doing to Buffy now. By contrast, Willow and Oz reconcile in this episode and Oz fends off Willow's attempts to prove her love through sex. They spend a chaste night together and watch the snow with blissful, childlike smiles, while Buffy and Angel fight nearly to the death.

In general, Angel and Oz relate mostly through their women. Consider their brief exchange onstage at the Bronze in "Doppelgangland" (3.16): before vamp!Willow appears, Angel comes out from backstage and Oz says, "Hey, man. You looking for Buffy?" Angel replies, "As always." In "Choices" (3.19), when the Mayor has Willow hostage and the gang meets him in the cafeteria, it is Oz who reminds Angel of the mission to save Willow -- he does so with just the quiet, forceful murmur of Angel's name. And in "Graduation Day Pt.2" (3.22), when Angel lies dying from Faith's poison arrow, Willow and Oz keep watch on him. Angel is delirious and mistakes Willow for Buffy -- "You too, huh?" Oz asks.

Later in that two-episode sequence, Angel and Oz's actions mirror each other once again. Again, that mirroring/refracting concerns sex. To save him, Buffy makes Angel drink from her, a scene that displaces sex onto biting, but remains *highly* sexually charged. To make the most of what could be their last days on earth, Oz and Willow have sex for the first time. This scene is omitted but seems, from their sweetly mellow afterglow, to have been the inverse of Buffy and Angel's encounter. After sex, Willow and Oz are closer than ever, while Buffy and Angel's bite-sex is a last, desperate meeting.

At the end of "Graduation Day Pt.2", Angel leaves town. Oz is the second of the Sunnydale group, after Cordelia, to see him next in Los Angeles. Their exchanges during "In the Dark" are a mixture of familiar and absurd. Always quiet, these exchanges suggest any number of scenarios to the shipper. First, when Oz delivers the ring and Doyle suggests they go out to celebrate, Angel stays back. Oz lingers in the doorway, silently, until Angel has to shoo him out. What's going through their minds here? What's suggested by Oz's hovering and Angel's tempered impatience? Secondly, on the beach when Angel defeats Marcus the vampire and emerges into the sun, Oz notes, repeatedly, how "pale" Angel is. "Like, incredibly pale," Oz says. "Paler than most people." This might mean that Oz hasn't ever seen Angel naked (or, at least, naked in direct light), but I prefer to dwell on the emotional significance of this scene. Just as Angel was the first to see Oz's monster in "Phases", Oz is among the first in two centuries to see Angel's human being.

And...that's it, for canon interactions. Oz leaves LA, and soon leaves Sunnydale, first in "Wild At Heart" (4.06) and then again in "New Moon Rising" (4.19), never to be heard from again. He leaves the first time to gain an understanding of his inner monster, and *returns*, while Angel's departure from Sunnydale was a one-way farewell. Oz's second leavetaking underscores just how central Willow has always been to his presence in the group. She no longer loves him, so he leaves -- there is no mission or grand passion for him, just a girl and the wolf.

One significant canon event, late in the run of AtS, has everything to do with Oz, though he is never mentioned. In 5.03, "Unleashed", Nina Ash is introduced. She is a werewolf and, by the end of the season, is in bed with Angel. Nina's presence in canon is problematic in reference to Oz because neither Angel nor Wesley, both of whom knew Oz in Sunnydale, seem to be aware that it is possible for someone to control his or her lycanthropy. The omission is, frankly, bizarre and nearly incomprehensible, since Oz's successful harnessing of the wolf (in "New Moon Rising" [BtVS 4.19] came at a time when Cordelia was talking to Willow regularly (cf. "Disharmony", AtS 2.17).

On the other hand, Nina's presence is also a boon to A/O shippers, since it can serve as evidence for Angel's taste for werewolves -- or, at the very least, his willingness to become involved with one. He tells Nina in "Unleashed" that he understands what she's going through "because I'm a monster, too". That line is beautiful and makes explicit a range of possibilities for Angel/Oz. At the same time, however, Nina is shown in "Unleashed" to be horrified by her transformation and dependent on Angel's help. Such dependency contrasts starkly with Oz's quiet determination in "Phases" to handle things on his own. I think that this contrast says more about Angel than it does about Nina and Oz; over the course of A:tS's narrative, and especially with s5's CEO-Champion role, Angel has shifted from being Buffy's lover/tempter to a more central position as Very Special King. Nina's reliance on him, then, highlights *his* self-importance and where he's gotten to in the narrative.

Shipping

Angel and Oz can be shipped while in Sunnydale, but this requires a careful and complicated thinking-through of sexuality and emotion. To *ignore* their canon relationships with the loves of their lives is lazy. In other words, omitting or demonizing Buffy or Willow is decidedly not cool.

But it is possible to slash Oz and Angel in Sunnydale. After all, until the sex in "Graduation Day", both characters were in ostensibly celibate relationships. Unintended moments of passion are a staple in fanfic, and there's quite a bit of room for both Angel and Oz to get carried away despite themselves. It's possible, too, that they could have had understandings with Willow and Buffy about same-sex relationships -- though this is difficult to imagine, particularly where Willow is concerned.

The close identification of both characters with their relationships (relationships which are, moreover, with *women*) mitigates against most A/O slash set in Sunnydale. It's also worth remembering that these canon relationships are both beloved by fans and deeply important to the characters themselves -- as Oz tells Willow in "Wild At Heart", "I've never loved anything like you." It's significant, I think, that whenever I post Ozslash, a good minority of feedback will remind me that the readers prefer Oz with Willow.

I don't think that slash during the Sunnydale years is impossible, just that it takes thought and care. One possibility is using Oz's physical resemblance to Buffy to establish a displacement/supplement-type dynamic. Another is to use the Wishverse -- Buffy is canonically absent, Angel is canonically pining and hopeless, and Oz is a White Hat extraordinaire. The situation is, in Dolores Labouchere's words, "sandpit heaven" for the A/O shipper.

After "Wild At Heart" and "New Moon Rising", however, the options multiply almost exponentially. A good deal of A/O fic takes place around/during "In the Dark", and once Oz leaves Sunnydale, it's entirely possible that he could go to LA for -- as the summary to Sheila's Reflections goes -- "help with his demons".

Sexing up Angel

An ongoing challenge with A/O slash, whenever it is set, concerns Angel's curse. While he was on BtVS, the curse was interpreted as, basically, "no sex, lest the soul be lost". This interpretation depends on the identification of "perfect happiness" with orgasm. It persists through the early years of A:tS, usually voiced by Cordelia and answered by Angel saying "I'm not a eunuch". His actions with Darla in "Reprise" (2.15) suggest, however, that Angel might believe that the curse directly concerns sex. Darla certainly believes it, as her reaction in "Epiphany" (2.16) makes clear. I'll quote it at length, because Darla pretty much rocks.

These two episodes make clear that the curse has nothing to do with sex, however good or frequent. Angel's perfect happiness concerns sex only obliquely; it is more directly related to *Buffy*. In "Awakening" (4.10), the shaman induces the loss of Angel's soul by spinning a perfect day for him, one that includes sex. Sex with Cordelia, but Angel's thoughts and heart appear to be with Buffy. Many shots of the sex scene explicitly echo the shots of Buffy and Angel's night together in "Passion", and he gasps Buffy's name as he comes.

There is room for *much* argument, of course, about what the gypsy curse means for Angel and his soul. It does seem, by s4, fairly clear that perfect happiness for him can only come in the form of Buffy. Furthermore, after the rest of s4, particularly Angel's murder/loss of his son, a persuasive argument can be made that *nothing* will ever be able to make him perfectly happy again.

A/O slash, like any sexual relationship for Angel, needs to think through what the curse means. I've tried to show that its interpretation varies over time while at the same time tending to focus on Buffy herself rather than orgasm.

Scale & tenor of the ship

Monsters and love: This brings me to the third important topic, which is *how* we see and interpret these characters. They are both taciturn, reserved, and *other* than human. A/O can be a ship of mellow and good, experimental sex, but it can also be a very dark ship about two characters bringing out the demon in each other.

That is, the author/shipper needs to consider what their respective monsters (for lack of a better word, and, anyway, I *like* it, especially since Angel himself uses it to Nina) *are* and how they are integrated (or not) into the characters' lives. Asking ourselves what the wolf means to Oz and what the vampire means to Angel should be requisite, as it goes to the heart of each's characterization. Even more importantly, answering these questions can help you sort out the dynamics of their relationship. If, for instance, Oz is filled with self-loathing about the wolf, this can be preyed upon by a beiger!Angel, or nurtured and healed by a more stable one. On the other hand, a mellow and Zenned-out Oz can go a long way toward helping Angel deal with his own guilt and self-loathing. This option echoes, faintly, some of the best aspects of the Cordelia/Angel ship, in that Oz could act as a stable, understanding friend who in no way *replaces* Buffy and the grand passion of that ship, but instead fosters a different, potentially more long-lasting relationship with Angel. On the third hand, Angel and Oz could prey on each other, mutually releasing pent-up monstrous tension within a space of trust. Or not; they could, quite conceivably, destroy each other.

Related to this question of monsters and their meaning is one concerning the characters' respective religious traditions. In general, consideration of a character's religion is not on my radar, but in the particular cases of Oz and Angel, it's very important. A great deal of Angel's self-image and motivation can be seen to derive from his growing up in early-eighteenth-century *Ireland*, a very Catholic country. Over the next century and a half, he continued to exhibit a taste, though now inverted and bloody, for the Church -- consider his stalking of Drusilla and oft-repeated fondness for nuns. In Oz's case, religion is an issue much more of inference, but still a significant one. While it's fanon to think of Oz as "Zen", it's probably more accurate to consider him a Tibetan Buddhist, at least as of "New Moon Rising"². It was Tibetan monks who taught him to control the wolf (though a Buddhist would talk less of "control" and more about "acceptance" -- as Oz himself tells Willow, "It's all about keeping your inner cool") and he wears Tibetan prayer beads on his hands and wrist. Werewolves in the Himalayas are a staple of 20th-century monster stories³, but Oz's particular relationship with Buddhism is worthy of investigation.

The tenor of an A/O relationship, then, can be just about anything, dark and bloody -- in Ozslash circles, pseudo-bestiality is referred to fondly as "wolfdick" -- to mellow and loving. The other important consideration when writing the ship is its scale. Is it a one night stand? A slowly-unfolding flirtation? A friendship with benefits? A grand romance full of declarations and promises? Any of these, save, I think, the last, are easy to imagine with these two. Angel keeps all sorts of secrets about his private life (cf. the Three Furies in "That Old Gang of Mine" 3.03), after all. And Oz can seem open to anything; moreover, he tends to maintain his private life, apart from the Scoobies, quite nicely, first with his band and friendship with Devon and later with his leaving Sunnydale.

It's good to remember, however, that Angel is not exactly great at longterm relationships. He tends to pull away in order to "protect" the people he cares about, whether that's Buffy at the end of s3 or Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn during his beige days in AtS s2. This tendency comes to an apotheosis with the mind-wipe concerning Connor in "Home" (4.22) and the ensuing consequences over the course of s5, during which Angel is variously seen to be heartless ("The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" [5.06]) and detached. Then again, Oz can be seen to do the same thing, otherwise he would not have left after killing Veruca. Yet -- and I can't stress this enough -- Oz *comes back*. The reason he leaves in "New Moon Rising" is not to protect anyone, but because Willow no longer loves him. If you're going to write a longterm relationship for these two, Angel's fears, doubts, and instincts toward self-denial and protection must be taken into account, as should Oz's tendency to lock onto one person and remain loyal.

Conclusion

Shipping Angel/Oz is less a matter of subtext and attendant hoyay! than it is of alchemy and characterization. The characters intersect at several moments in canon, and a great deal of emotional resonance can be built from these intersections. Outside of canon, Oz's absence after "New Moon Rising" suggests a number of options for shipping. But shipping this pair requires dedication, thought, and imagination concerning two exceptionally reserved and complicated men, men who are dealing with being other than human.

It can be done, however, and when it's done well, the results are spectacular. Where Angel can be a brooding, Byronic hero, Oz is more like an independent, freestanding foil; there's room between these two for Big Drama, hot sex, small caring gestures, and companionable silence. All in all, they're quite lovely together. And incredibly pale to boot.

Recommended Reading & Resources

Dolores Labouchere maintains the long-running ship archive, Incredibly Pale. There is also a section on Slashing the Angel for Angel with Oz. These should be first stops for anyone interested in the ship; IP is much more comprehensive, while StA is idiosyncratically selective.

Most A/O fic takes the form of one-shot vignettes. I'm highlighting a few key takes on the relationship, but the fics mentioned in no way exhaust what's out there -- or what's left to do. The mellow, Sunnydale-based friends-with-benefits take on the ship can be seen in Tesla's lovely Devon and the Naked Lunch: It all turned out to be just another Wednesday night at the Bronze. During the break between the two sets, Devon disappeared with his twins, and Angel and Oz smoked the rest of the doobie in the men's room, and made out in the bathroom stall. Oz kept thinking that an ageless immortal should have better things to do with his time than snog a wolf-boy, but, apparently not. (All her A/O, much of which is related, is gathered here.) A much darker and bestial tenor, though with similarly excellent characterization, is on display in Doyle's Five Traits of Lycanthropy -- It's best this way, from behind. Angel's big hand is clamped around his throat... -- and Buffonia's In You -- A beast below him, inside him, him inside a beast. The longest -- in terms of word-count *and* chronology -- fic that I know of is a now-dead RPG called Monsters Ball. I wouldn't usually self-pimp (though I love the story and what I got to do with Oz there), but as Kita's Angel is considered in this fandom to be the sine qua non, it's well-worth checking out.

Both Archaic Reputation and Deep In are good resources for Angel; the Oz Zone site Monosyllabic Eccentricity is less helpful, particularly in terms of slashing the wolfboy, but the Ozslash site Laconic fills the gap nicely.

—— Notes Much thanks to Cathexys, JadeLennox, Tabaqui, ChrisLee, Bunny, Scy, Tania, and Dolores for comments on an early draft of this.

1. This is a moral that later becomes "fact" in s3's "Beauty and the Beasts" and later seasons. In "Phases", the moral is shown to be misplaced when, at the end, Willow chooses to continue dating Oz; the last line of the episode is Oz's sweet "a werewolf in love". Monstrosity is a specific, individualized phenomenon: though Angelus is irredeemable, Oz is not. Later episodes blur, then erase, this complication, to the detriment of narrative complexity.
2. Then again, Oz wears a t-shirt with the Sanskrit for OM and one advertising yoga over the course of "Phases". Attributing Buddhism to him even early on is possible...
3. See, for an early example, Universal's Werewolf of London (1935). BtVS's characteristic deployment of pop-cultural metaphors is best exemplified in the character of Oz.